I enjoyed reading the article [in the spring
2002 issue] about the chaplaincy and the chaplains who graduated from
Princeton Theological Seminary. Your periodical did a wonderful job of
telling the story of our chaplains’ ministries. The articles were
excellent. The ministry of the chaplains to America’s sons and daughters
who are in the military is a great story to tell. Thanks for telling it.

In reading the spring issue of inSpire, I noticed the article on
military chaplains and particularly the story of
George S. Rentz (Class of 1909). I read with great interest
the account of his death while serving as a chaplain aboard the
USS
Houston, which was sunk
during the Battle of the Java Sea in the early days of World War II.

I was deeply moved by his heroic act of giving up his lifejacket to a
younger seaman. I had the privilege of working for a number of years with
a man who had also been aboard the Houston and who had survived its
sinking. My friend spent the remainder of the war as a POW in Japan. After
the war he returned home and finished out a distinguished career in the
navy, and was an active and committed Presbyterian elder. Indeed, he still
is, though now in his early 90s.

As I read the article, I couldn’t help but wonder if my friend had been
that young seaman for whom Commander Rentz had given up his lifejacket. Of
course, he probably wasn’t, but the thought made even more real for me
Rentz’s truly sacrificial act of greater love, and further deepened my
appreciation for my friend’s years of faithful service to the church,
which may well have been inspired by that act.

Jesse B. Garner
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Commendation for Chaplains

Another excellent issue. I especially appreciated the article about
chaplains [spring 2002. I served as a consultant/trainer for
23 years at army and navy chaplains schools. The chaplains were almost
without exception among the finest and most dedicated religious leaders
with whom I had the privilege of working in 34 years of consulting with
clergy. Their ecumenical spirit, respect for each other, and ability to
adapt to changing situations and circumstances, as well as their courage
in the face of danger, were among the strengths that I noted.

Tom Brown (’59B, ’62M)
Pensacola, Florida

Unexpected Ministry with the Military

I am encouraged to learn, from “For
God and Country” [spring 2002], that there are chaplains doing grad
work and there are students preparing for the chaplaincy. After a stint in
the army during World War II, and then developing a ministry with the
military personnel in the Fairbanks, Alaska, area for my internship in
1952–1953, I almost found myself re-upping as a chaplain. But I became so
intent on the ministry that I did have with military personnel after my
graduation and return to Alaska, that I woke up one day to find that when
I wanted to become a chaplain, I was too old.

The article was most appreciated.

Neil Munro (’54B)
Spokane, Washington

Correction:

Margaret Kibben (’86B) was misidentified as “the first female navy
chaplain” in the article on military chaplains [spring 2002, p. 13]. This
error was brought to our attention by David Chambers (’45B), who shared,
“By the time Margaret had come along we had already put Mary Ann
Collins-Stauffer (’80B), Bonnie Deppenbrock (’81B), Joan Hendrick
(Wooten), and perhaps others on active duty in the navy. But the first was
Dianna Pohlman, PTS Class of 1973, who was the first female chaplain in
the army, air force, or navy. Dianna was the pioneer. She was assigned
just as any other chaplain would have been; not to a dependent’s ward in a
hospital and not to a women’s recruit battalion. It was very
difficult—this was breaking ground for the military, the chaplaincy, and
many of her colleagues who had not yet accepted women clergy. Margaret
Kibben came along about 10 years later.”

inSpire offers its sincerest apologies to the Reverend Dianna
Pohlman Bell and to the navy chaplaincy.

Editor’s Note: We have received a number of other letters about the
feature on military chaplaincy. We will print them in the winter 2003
issue.

_____________________________

A Roommate Remembers…

We have followed closely the tributes to
Dr.
James Loder in inSpire and the Princeton Seminary Bulletin and wish to
add some information. I was Jim’s roommate in Alexander Hall for part of
1954–1955, and he was our friend at the Seminary from 1953 to 1956. I
cannot forget that my roommate was often awake half the night reading
philosophy and psychology while I slept. It was astounding what trouble he
took to advance his knowledge—a trait that stayed with him, apparently,
all his life.

We again met Jim in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1968–1969. He had become
associate professor and was on sabbatical from Princeton. Jim was studying
with the Swiss psychologist and specialist in pedagogy, Jean Piaget, of
the University of Geneva.

During that time, Jim and his family were living at Cologny, and we
were living at Celigny. I was finishing my D.Theol. at the
University of Basel, commuting weekly.
Quite a surprise when I met Jim at the library of the
Ecumenical Institute of Bossey.
As families we met several times that year, and after the Loders left
their chalet, “La Pastourelle,” we rented it for a couple years, before
settling permanently in the same area.

Charles Graves (’56B)
Geneva, Switzerland

Please
email — we love to hear from you!

We
welcome correspondence from our readers. Email should be
addressed to:[email protected]Messages may be edited for length or clarity, and should
include the writer’s name, telephone numbers, and city and state
or country.

A Lasting Influence

Thank you so
much for the wonderful articles about
Professor James Loder [spring 2002]. Although I never
had the
opportunity to meet Dr. Loder, his book, The Transforming Moment,
was one of the reasons I chose to apply to Princeton for my Doctor of
Ministry degree.

James Loder is and will continue to be missed. His giant presence,
however, will be with us in his writings. We can take some comfort in the
truth that Dr. Loder’s physical body could no longer hold his adventurous
soul, and that he continues to teach his own particular brand of
passionate spirituality in the next world.

James R. Newby (’92P)
Des Moines, Iowa

Loder and India

Thank you for a wonderful issue of inSpire [spring 2002]. The tributes
to Dr. James Loder were touching and the write-up on
India was
very interesting. However, I wish you had perspectives on Dr. Loder from
outside the U.S. also. His teaching touched other lands. And in the
coverage you gave India I missed any reference to women candidates in the
Ph.D. program.

I offer a perspective from India, where Dr. Loder’s theory of
transformation has been taken from its erudite level in academia to the
grassroots level. A Christian education curriculum brought out by the
India Sunday School Union is based on the theory of transformation. Dr.
Loder’s former students Elizabeth A. Frykberg (’77M, ’89D) and I served as
the chief editor and associate editor of the series. To coincide with the
release of the first few books in June 1997, Dr. Loder was kind enough to
give a series of lectures on the theory of transformation to ecumenical
audiences in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Bangalore, and Coonoor. The people
were blessed by his lectures and more particularly by his life in the
Spirit.

The only two women Ph.D. students from India at PTS are Glory Jothi
Thomas and Atola Longkumer. Glory graduated this year as the first Indian
woman to complete a Ph.D. from PTS. Her dissertation is on the church’s
response to women’s concerns and is a historical analysis of the mission
and ministry of the Church of South India in Kerala. Atola is writing her
dissertation on the religious conversion of the Nagas from Shamanism to
Christianity. Her determination and dedication inspire many of us.

I hope some day you can do a story on these women.

Ajit A. Prasadam (Ph.D. student)
Coonoor, India

Editor’s Note:

The editors asked PTS professor Richard Young to
respond to a letter to the editor in the spring 2002 issue of inSpire. His
response follows.

Making Room for the Qur’an

Allow me to rectify an innocent error that crept into inSpire’s
otherwise accurate coverage of the September 28th, 2001, chapel service at
which Imam Hamad Chebli of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey
addressed
the Seminary community. In your article (“Muslim
Imam Leads Chapel Service,” winter 2002), the following is
reported: “Refusing Young’s offer to remove the Bible from the pulpit
before he spoke, Chebli told worshipers that the Torah, the New Testament,
and the Qur’an all reveal the same God, and all were given to the human
community for edification.” This was substantially—but not
entirely—correct. The italicized words, unfortunately, misrepresent what
the imam actually said. Were it not for the misattribution to me of an
invidious motive by an offended reader, George Hancock-Stefan, who writes
that he was “deeply offended by [my] willingness to remove [the Bible] so
that [I] would not offend the visiting guest” (“Welcome Dialogue without
Forgetting Faith,” spring 2002), the matter would be too trivial to
address.

The background is this. Though not a stranger to the Seminary, Imam
Chebli was unfamiliar with Miller Chapel. I therefore thought it helpful
to give him an orientation. When we came to the pulpit, I noticed that the
Bible on it—a hefty Oxford “Family Bible”—took up virtually all the
available lectern space. Concerned that Imam Chebli’s equally hefty copy
of the Qur’an might unceremoniously slide to the floor if placed directly
on top of the open pulpit Bible, I wondered aloud if I shouldn’t “put the
Bible aside.” By that I meant to one side of the pulpit—to that part of it
which I have called, for wont of a better technical term, the “lectern
space”—so as to make room for the Qur’an. A tape recording of the service
that followed confirms that Imam Chebli, who referred to my having
wondered whether I should “put the Bible aside,” understood me correctly.
As his subsequent remarks (cited above) indicate, the Imam had reasons of
his own for wanting the Bible to remain on the pulpit—right where it was.

When inSpire reported that I had offered “to remove the Bible from the
pulpit,” I winced. After all, “remove” and “put aside” can be construed
very differently—depending on the context. So here you have the context,
Mr. Hancock-Stefan. I trust that you are now disabused of any lingering
misapprehension that making room for the Qur’an implied on my part an
embarrassment about the Bible! If, moreover, my subjective state of mind
at the time had been one of embarrassment, would I have stood in the
pulpit for a public reading of Scripture? That I did (from Genesis)—as did
others (Professor Paul Rorem in the call to worship and Professor Mark
Taylor in the benediction, though not, of course, from the
pulpit)—suggests that the title of the inSpire article was likewise
inadvertently misleading. Imam Chebli did not “lead” the service. What
transpired was that our Muslim neighbor—in the context of Christian
worship—addressed the Seminary community on issues of enormous concern to
all people of faith and to people of all faiths in the immediate aftermath
of the 9/11 incidents. Be assured, Sir, that even though room was made for
the Qur’an on the pulpit, the Bible was nevertheless very much in evidence
that day in Miller Chapel.

Editor’s Note: Many people responded to the story about
Julia
Robinson [spring 2002]. She received more than 20 cards and
letters, each of which she found very encouraging. She continues to
struggle; she continues to be thankful for life. And Robinson continues to
welcome those who would like to write to her.